Wednesday, January 31, 2007

I was getting gas tonight at a BP station just over the Missouri line* when something unexpected happened to me. An attendant, probably about 19-20 years old, was emptying the trash cans. As I was filling up, he asked me if I needed any help with anything. I told him that I was fine. He told me that if I needed help with anything, to let him know. He then started talking about the weather (which is terrible, by the way) and was generally very pleasant.

It was creepy.

As I was leaving, I got to thinking about how odd the guy's behavior seemed. But as I thought about it some more, I realized that what was really odd was that the guy's friendliness made him stand out so much, even to the point of being weird.

Have we really sunk so low that friendliness is considered weird? Have we become so accustomed to poor customer service, that good service is creepy? Sadly enough, I think this is the case.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

I'm borrowing one of these from a friend in the next week or two, and am going to give it a test run. I've read really good things about it, and it would be nice to have a very good lens I could use for macro work. Macro photos are some of my favorites, and this lens supposedly gives good results.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Well, I've wanted one of these since I first saw them. It looks like it's going to be a hit. Hillary was getting irritated with the home theater setup, and I must admit, I can't blame her. She could never figure out which input to use, which remote was causing the problem, etc. It was pretty complex. Now she just has to hit the "Watch Movie" button, and it plays a DVD. Or she can hit the "Watch TV" button for television. Pretty nice. It's going to work well.

Setup was a breeze, too. It automatically programs off of the internet. You plug the remote in using a USB cable, type in the model numbers of your equipment, and it does all the rest. No programming codes, no aiming remotes at each other, etc.

Retails for $150, I paid about $90 at cost at CompUSA. If I would have planned ahead, I would have picked one up from FatWallet.

If you have a home theater which involves at least a receiver, a TV, and a DVD player, I really think these are worth the money.

Here's the official Apple link. See the Keynote HERE. Trust me, it's worth it. See real life pics HERE and HERE. I can't post everything that I want to about this device, because I need to get to bed. I'll add more in the next day or two. I'll give you some highlights.

1. I loved my Treo this morning. Now it looks nasty.

2. It solves problems I didn't know I had.

3. It far exceeded all of my expectations, and is better than I thought possible.

4. I decided to switch to Cingular, even though I'm on contract with Sprint. Instant decision.

5. I truly think it has the potential to be one of the most significant developments in consumer electronics in a decade.

6. It appears that it will let me do things that I didn't dream I'd be able to do until years from now, and do them easily.

7. It is good to know that there are still more good ideas out there, waiting for someone to carry them through.

I'm really getting into this eBay thing. I'm a Gold Powerseller now. I've been averaging almost $20,000 in business per month, lately, and it looks like it might be heating up even more.

It's really incredible. I would have never imagined this much money would be flowing through my bank account from eBay. I have to make sure I get it all straightened out with the IRS though. I don't want them thinking that the whole amount is profit, because it's not.

I'm working with a great product right now, but I need to be on the lookout for the next big thing. Dell pretty much went down the toilet for me over the last year, thanks to their decision to open retail outlets. It made every Dell product over 7% more expensive in many states overnight. It looks pretty certain that these lenses will lose their profitability too, eventually.

PayPal, on the other hand, is a thorn in my side. I've spent thousands of dollars on PayPal fees, and have received very little in return. They provide essentially no protection for sellers, and are one of the most unresponsive companies to customer concerns that I've ever heard of.

The rub is that they're intricately linked, as eBay owns PayPal. eBay makes as much from me on PayPal fees as they do on the actual auction. I choose to use eBay because it's the best available option. I'm forced to use PayPal because eBay promotes it so heavily, and actively discourages the competition.